The "No Asshole Rule" Part II

The Ivey Business Journal (November/December 2003) defines workplace bullying as "status-blind interpersonal hostility that is deliberate, repeated and sufficiently severe as to harm the targeted person's health or economic status".

While I hate to do this, let's remove the "people" from the equation for a moment and focus on the economic impact to the organization. The Orlando Business Journal cited an estimated cost of $180M in lost time and productivity to American businesses each year. The Workplace Bullying Institute estimates that between turnover and lost productivity, a bully could cost a Fortune 500 company an astounding $24,000,000; then add another $1.4 million for litigation and settlement costs.

Employers have begun to consider the impact of negative emotional behavior on work productivity. When people feel mistreated and are dissatisfied with their jobs, they are unwilling to do extra work (discretionary effort) to help their organization. Employees experience a significant loss of motivation. Employers see increased absenteeism and turnover, expend time reorganizing departments, interviewing, recruiting and training the replacements for the victims and/or bullies that are no longer with the company. Then there's the potential legal costs; settlement fees, legal fees associated with counsel. Increased health insurance or worker's compensation as a result of stress, EAP's, etc.

In The No Asshole Rule, Robert Sutton sites a study completed by Frank J. Smith in the late 1970s. The industrial psychologist demonstrated the power of work attitude on "discretionary effort" in a study of three thousand employees at the Sears headquarters in Chicago. "Smith found that attitudes didn't predict which employees were absent from work until the day a crippling snowstorm hit Chicago. On that day, when employees had a good excuse to stay home, employees who were more satisfied with their supervision and other parts of the job were far more likely to make the tough commute into work than those that were dissatisfied. When I am stuck working for, or with, a bunch of assholes, I don't go out of my way to help, But when I admire my superiors and colleagues, I'll go to extreme lengths."

Oftentimes bullying is poorly understood. But face it, it affects the overall "health" of an organization. Eliminate bullying in your organization. Have your managers and supervisors examine their own behavior to ensure they aren't engaging in inadvertent bullying behavior. Communicate to your employees that bullying will not be tolerated. Tell employees who are being bullied to report it to management immediately.